Barclays Bank was accused of trying to bury bad news today after it released details of the bonuses awarded to its top nine executives almost immediately after the Chancellor’s Budget statement.

The bank issued the details of the pay awards to the London Stock Exchange at 3pm, while markets were focused on the Chancellor's statement. Barclays is required to make public its bonus awards to top staff at least 21 days ahead of its annual general meeting of shareholders but this is not until 25 April.

Eyebrows will be raised at the near £18million worth of shares awarded to Barclays' investment banking chief Rich Ricci, who landed the windfall as part of the mammoth share awards paid out to bank's top bosses.

Banker bashing: Barclays shareholders may find they have to make their way past protestors again when the bank holds its AGM next month after it released details of the awards given to its top executives

The nine executives in total received
share fortunes worth a combined £40million in what will surely
stoke further controversy over pay deals at the bank following its Libor
rate rigging scandal and mis-selling controversies.

Mr Ricci's multimillion-pound pay
day came as he sold a 5.7 million tranche of shares given to him by the
bank for previous annual bonuses and long-term incentive schemes.

The
bank stressed however that Mr Ricci had waived his bonus for 2012 in
light of the Libor scandal, which cost former chief
executive Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius their jobs and the bank
£290million in fines.

Barclays new chief executive
Antony Jenkins, who also agreed not to take a bonus for last year,
picked up 1.8 million shares worth £6million and immediately sold half -
netting him £2.9 million.

Mr Jenkins received a £2.6million
total pay package for last year, including a £1.5million long-term
incentive bonus due to pay out in future years if he meets performance
targets.

Filthy rich: investment bank head Rich Ricci walked away with £18m worth of Barclays shares despite the Libor rate fixing scandal involving his division last year which cost the bank £290m in fines.

The timing of the announcement to coincide with the Budget drew immediate criticism.

John Hunter, a policy member of
the UK shareholder association, which aims to protect the rights of
private shareholders, said Barclay's decision to release the bonus
figures after the Chancellor’s Budget statement was ‘sneaky’.

He said: ‘They are trying to bury bad
news. It is a standard PR tactic. It is an attempt to get a
story about their massive bonuses off the front pages

‘Society's first reaction is that bankers are a bunch of sleazeballs, and this makes them look even sleazier.’

But Barclays claimed it planned today's release months before the Chancellor set the date of his Budget statement.

The bank stressed that today's
share awards were for deferred annual bonus payouts from previous years
and long-term incentive schemes.

A Barclays spokesman said: 'Barclays has revised its remuneration policy and all future incentive
awards, short and long-term, will be based on the new principles that
have been set out.'

Details of the share awards come
after Barclays revealed in its annual report earlier this month that 428
workers were paid more than £1million last year, including five who got
more than £5 million despite a year of scandal and falling profits.

The report also highlighted a
widening pay gap at the bank as it showed there were more than 71,500
staff who received less than £25,000 last year.